The new anime version of
The Borrowers, titled
The Secret World of Arrietty by Hayao Miyazaki, has the fascination with household “
spirits” and the same lovely color palette and attention to detail for which his films are
famous.

But Miyazaki, director of
Ponyo,
Spirited Away and
My Neighbor Totoro, didn’t direct this Studio Ghibli film. Perhaps that is why it lacks
his sense of whimsy, that little sprinkling of Miyazaki magic that the Japanese director has given
his best work through the years.

Mary Norton’s oft-filmed 60-year-old novel is about the miniature people who live in the walls
and below the floorboards of old houses, creatures who “borrow” what they need from the “human
beans.”

Every shopping trip is an expedition — nabbing one cube of sugar that could last them months, a
cracker that could be crushed to make Borrower bread. They live by two rules. “Borrowers take only
what they need,” and, once they’ve been seen, it’s time to move. Those humans and their curiosity
are nothing but trouble for Borrowers.

Arrietty (voiced by Bridgit Mendler) is a 13-year-old straining at the limits of her world. She
knows only her family, can only hope that there are other Borrowers, still surviving elsewhere. She
sneaks outside (Miyazaki’s love of nature), tempts the evil ravens who wouldn’t mind gobbling her
up as a snack — and is spied by a sickly human boy. Shawn (voiced by David Henrie) wants to help,
and Arrietty wants to make contact. She sees no threat from this fellow her own age and no need to
move, or even tell her parents (Amy Poehler and Will Arnett). Naturally, they see things
differently.

The gorgeous pastels of Studio Ghibli films and famous attention to detail are evident. The
Borrowers’ world of re-purposed human detritus — pins and empty spools and discarded bolts,
double-sided tape, which allows father Pod (Arnett) to scale the heights of a kitchen counter to
fetch sugar — is ingeniously realized.

But Miyazaki, who co-wrote the script, had nowhere to take it. Either the Borrowers leave, or
they stay. They’re either discovered and survive or captured and exposed.

There’s no romance, no way to open up the tale, despite the fact that they’re using that most
fantastic film form: animation.